Listen Legally to Best Full Audiobooks in History, American

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Title: Daughters of the Samurai

Subtitle: A Journey from East to West and Back

Author: Janice P. Nimura

Narrator: Emily Zeller

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-31-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 90 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

In 1871, five young girls were sent by the Japanese government to the United States. Their mission: learn Western ways and return to help nurture a new generation of enlightened men to lead Japan. Raised in traditional samurai households during the turmoil of civil war, three of these unusual ambassadors - Sutematsu Yamakawa, Shige Nagai, and Ume Tsuda - grew up as typical American schoolgirls. Upon their arrival in San Francisco, they became celebrities, their travels and traditional clothing exclaimed over by newspapers across the nation. As they learned English and Western customs, their American friends grew to love them for their high spirits and intellectual brilliance. The passionate relationships they formed reveal an intimate world of cross-cultural fascination and connection. Ten years later they returned to Japan - a land grown foreign to them - determined to revolutionize women's education. Based on in-depth archival research in Japan and in the United States, including decades of letters from between the three women and their American host families, Daughters of the Samurai is beautifully, cinematically written, a fascinating lens through which to view an extraordinary historical moment.

Members Reviews:

Women who overcome

While the audio performance is a bit stilted the story of 3 Japanese girls sent to the US to be educated and their adult life in Japan is easy to enjoy. A story of lifelong friendships and perseverance in the face of cultural obstructions tells how these women, along with their American friends and supporters have an impact on women's education, society, and their lives in Japan.

Need a different narrator

Narrator is not familiar with pronunciation of Japanese names making it difficult for me to understand places and names.

Engrossing Well Researched

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes. Nimura makes this time period spring to life by focusing on several women's lives and experiences.

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Title: Our Man in Charleston

Subtitle: Britain's Secret Agent in the Civil War South

Author: Christopher Dickey

Narrator: Antony Ferguson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-21-15

Publisher: HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 104 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

The unlikely man at the roiling center of this intrigue was Robert Bunch, an American-born Englishman who had maneuvered his way to the position of British consul in Charleston, South Carolina, and grew to loathe slavery and the righteousness of its practitioners. Bunch used his unique perch and boundless ambition to become a key player, sending reams of dispatches to the home government and eventually becoming the Crown's best secret source on the Confederacy. But doing so required living a double life. To his Charleston neighbors, Bunch was increasingly a pillar of Southern society. But to the British government, he was a strident abolitionist, eviscerating Southern dissembling on plans regarding the slave trade.

Our Man in Charleston is a masterfully told story of an unknown crusader. Award-winning author Christopher Dickey locates Consul Bunch as the key figure among Englishmen in America. Determined to ensure the triumph of morality in the inevitable march to civil war, he helped determine the fate of a nation. Featuring a cast of remarkable characters, Our Man in Charleston also captures a decisive moment in Anglo-American history: the pitched battle between those who wished to reopen the floodgates of bondage and misery and those who wished to dam the tide forever.

Contact me for any questions: [email protected]

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Title: Independence Lost

Subtitle: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution

Author: Kathleen DuVal

Narrator: Susan Boyce

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 22 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-07-15

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 23 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

In Independence Lost, Kathleen DuVal recounts the history of the Revolutionary Era as experienced by slaves, American Indians, women, and British loyalists living on Florida's Gulf Coast.

Independence Lost reveals that individual motives counted as much as the ideals of liberty and freedom the Founders espoused: Independence had a personal as well as national meaning, and the choices made by people living outside the colonies were of critical importance to the war's outcome. DuVal introduces us to the Mobile slave Petit Jean, who organized militias to fight the British at sea; the Chickasaw diplomat Payamataha, who worked to keep his people out of war; New Orleans merchant Oliver Pollock and his wife, Margaret O'Brien Pollock, who risked their own wealth to organize funds and garner Spanish support for the American Revolution; and Scottish loyalists James and Isabella Bruce, whose work on behalf of the British Empire placed them in grave danger. Their lives illuminate the fateful events that took place along the Gulf of Mexico and, in the process, changed the history of North America itself.

Critic Reviews:

"This book adds to the literature of the period." (Library Journal, starred review)

Members Reviews:

Extremely enlightening & fascinating, especially to a Southerner

As an 8th generation Alabamian, I learned much about which I had never been exposed from this era of history in and connected to my region. I had no idea about the complex and active levels of diplomacy by Southeast Indian tribes, nor about many complexities of the American Revolution here in what is now the Southeastern US. I will definitely be recommending the book to friends. The storytelling style of relaying the history was definitely engaging. And like any well written book, I was sorry to come to the end. I look forward to more of Professor DuVal's work.

Reader who doesn't understand content

The reader is incompetent. She may understand the material, but she cannot communicate it reading orally. She should not be reading aloud.

Lesser Known Aspects of the Revolution

Unlike the implication early in her book, DuVal is not the first to examine the roles of women, Indians, slaves, farmers or Loyalists in the American Revolution, although these subjects are certainly underrepresented in the historical literature. Nor is she the first to look at the Revolutionary period in the Gulf Coast and lower Mississippi, although they too are underrepresented. She does, however, make important contributions to these areas of study.

Among others, she touches briefly on the question of why only 13 of the many British colonies in the Western Hemisphere revolted, which is a question that deserves further exploration. She delves more deeply into the global, imperial nature of the conflict that grew out of the Revolution, and makes important connections between the Spanish victory at Pensacola and the American/French victory at Yorktown.

Her central theme, developed largely in the second half of the book, focuses on the tensions between independence and interdependence. There is much literature that explores how the Revolution threw off a hierarchical system of mutual interdependence, among both polities and individuals, and created a much more level society of independent citizens.

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Title: The Sears Tower

Subtitle: The History of Chicago's Most Iconic Landmark

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: John Gagnepain

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 26 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-11-15

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

"Chicago is a city of skyscrapers. New York is not. New York is a city that's a huge rock that has been carved out to make streets. [Gordon] Bunshaft was always jealous when he came to Chicago because he could stand and see the buildings. In New York, you can't do that. You have to be miles away to see the buildings." - Bruce Graham, architect

Walking around Chicago today, it's easy to forget about its past as a rural frontier, and that's due in no small part to the way Chicago responded to the Great Fire of 1871. Immediately after the fire, Chicago encouraged inhabitants and architects to build over the ruins, spurring creative architecture with elaborate designs, and architects descended upon the city for the opportunity to rebuild the area. Over the next few decades, Chicago had been rebuilt with the country's most modern architecture and monuments, and the Windy City's skyscrapers reached over 20 stories by the early 20th century, but it wouldn't take long for the city to turn its early skyscrapers into things of the past. Burnham's 22 story high Masonic Temple Building, once the tallest building in the world, was demolished in favor of buildings that were twice as tall.

The early skyscrapers that still stand look like antiques compared to Chicago's current skyline, because during the mid-20th century, architects built dozens of much taller buildings throughout Chicago, often constructing these enormous structures in less than a decade.

Members Reviews:

Love Chicago; love the tower

Where does The Sears Tower rank among all the audiobooks youve listened to so far?

Filled with snippets of newsworthy note.

What did you like best about this story?

I especially liked the stories behind the scenes of how decisions were made and what was happening during the build and after.

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Title: Whirlwind

Subtitle: The American Revolution and the War That Won It

Author: John Ferling

Narrator: Neil Hellegers

Format: Unabridged

Length: 17 hrs and 23 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-26-15

Publisher: Audible Studios for Bloomsbury

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 105 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Amid a great collection of scholarship and narrative history on the Revolutionary War and the American struggle for independence, there is a gaping hole - one that John Ferling's latest audiobook, Whirlwind, will fill. Books chronicling the revolution have largely ranged from multivolume tomes that appeal to scholars and the most serious general listeners to microhistories that necessarily gloss over swaths of Independence-era history with only cursory treatment.

Written in Ferling's engaging and narrative-driven style that made books like Independence and The Ascent of George Washington critical and commercial successes, Whirlwind is a fast-paced and scrupulously told one-volume history of this epochal time. Balancing social and political concerns of the period and perspectives of the average American revolutionary with a careful examination of the war itself, Ferling has crafted the ideal book for armchair military history buffs, a book about the causes of the American Revolution, the war that won it, and the meaning of the revolution overall.

Combining careful scholarship, arresting detail, and illustrative storytelling, Whirlwind is a unique and compelling addition to any collection of books on the American Revolution.

Members Reviews:

Thorough...I got a lot out of it.

I have an undergrad in American History, but I still learned a lot from this book. Interestingly enough, although I always knew how long the war lasted, this book put it into perspective for me. It must have been grueling for those living through the war - the men who were fighting lived in horrid conditions and the women and children they left at home suffered greatly as well. I put myself back in the time and wonder if I would have been strong enough to fight the crown and risk losing everything. Life was hard during this war. We owe our easy lives to all who sacrificed.

Truly a Whirlwind read!

This book is perfect for this time of year the age of great challenges and sacrifices. After you hear this or read it you should take a patriotic trip to the countryside of Philly to feel the woods in which these men fought and struggled to begin our country.

clear, easy to understand enjoyable

I had no trouble listening to this. the narrator had I had a pleasant clear voice.. the chapters progressed an easy to understand through line

Comprehensive and engaging

Tremendous presentation of the Revolutionary war clear concise comprehensive and entertaining. More than a simple foundation complexities and nuances made very understandable.

An amazing read for history nerds like me

Love this book!!! Well written and engaging, though punctuated by stretches that seem to deviate from the main important narrative. Helped me visualize the war and gave many new facts on the Founding Fathers. Great read! Highly recommended!!

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Title: Jacksonland

Subtitle: President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a Great American Land Grab

Author: Steve Inskeep

Narrator: Steve Inskeep

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-19-15

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 179 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Jacksonland is the thrilling narrative history of two men - President Andrew Jackson and Cherokee chief John Ross - who led their respective nations at a crossroads of American history. Five decades after the Revolutionary War, the United States approached a constitutional crisis. At its center stood two former military comrades locked in a struggle that tested the boundaries of our fledgling democracy. Jacksonland is their story.

One man we recognize: Andrew Jackson - war hero, populist, and exemplar of the expanding South - whose first major initiative as president instigated the massive expulsion of Native Americans known as the Trail of Tears. The other is a half-forgotten figure: John Ross - a mixed-race Cherokee politician and diplomat - who used the United States' own legal system and democratic ideals to oppose Jackson. Representing one of the Five Civilized Tribes who had adopted the ways of white settlers - cultivating farms, publishing a newspaper in their own language, and sending children to school - Ross championed the tribes' cause all the way to the Supreme Court. He gained allies like Senator Henry Clay, Chief Justice John Marshall, and even Davy Crockett. In a fight that seems at once distant and familiar, Ross and his allies made their case in the media, committed civil disobedience, and benefited from the first mass political action by American women. Their struggle contained ominous overtures of later events like the Civil War and set the pattern for modern-day politics.

At stake in this struggle was the land of the Five Civilized Tribes. In shocking detail Jacksonland reveals how Jackson, as a general, extracted immense wealth from his own armies' conquest of native lands. Later, as president, Jackson set in motion the seizure of tens of millions of acres - "Jacksonland" - in today's Deep South.

Critic Reviews:

"Steve Inskeep has found an illuminating and provocative way to talk about the American past - and, truth be told, the American present and future too. By taking us back to the epic struggle between Andrew Jackson and Chief John Ross, Inskeep tells an essential story of geography, greed, and power: and the forces he so clearly delineates are the ones that shape us still." (Jon Meacham, author of American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House)

"Inskeep tells this, one of the most tragic and transformative stories in American history, in swift, confident, colorful strokes. So well, and so intimately, does he know his subject that the reader comes away feeling as if Jackson and Ross' epic struggle for the future of their nations took place yesterday rather than nearly 200 years ago." (Candice Millard, author of Destiny of the Republic and The River of Doubt)

"This narrative of the forced removal of Cherokee Indians from their ancient homeland in the 1830s is framed as a contest between two determined and stubborn adversaries who had once been allies. President Andrew Jackson eventually prevailed over Cherokee chief John Ross in a conflict that culminated in the infamous Trail of Tears. Steve Inskeep skillfully captures the poignant drama of this tragic tale." (James McPherson, author of Embattled Rebel and Battle Cry of Freedom)

"As an NPR journalist, Steve Inskeep must craft stories in a way that allows listeners to see his subjects in their minds.

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Title: Yosemite National Park

Subtitle: The History of California's Most Famous Park

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: Diane Lehman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 22 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-07-15

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

"Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space." (Ansel Adams)

"Some of the natural world is appealing, some of it is terrifying, and some of it grosses us out. Modern people don't want to be dropped naked into a swamp. We want to tour Yosemite with our water bottles and G.P.S. devices. The natural world is a source of happiness and fulfillment, but only when prescribed in the right doses." (Paul Bloom)

"If for a moment you are inclined to regard these taluses as mere draggled, chaotic dumps, climb to the top of one of them, and run down without any haggling, puttering hesitation, boldly jumping from boulder to boulder with even speed. You will then find your feet playing a tune, and quickly discover the music and poetry of these magnificent rock piles - a fine lesson; and all Nature's wildness tells the same story - the shocks and outbursts of earthquakes, volcanoes, geysers, roaring, thundering waves and floods, the silent uprush of sap in plants, storms of every sort - each and all are the orderly beauty-making love-beats of Nature's heart." (John Muir)

The United States is full of natural wonders, but few remain unspoiled by man as much as Yosemite National Park: a 750,000-square-acre park near the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Despite being inhabited by people for nearly 3,000 years, the relatively remote spot helped ensure that even as America expanded west, the Yosemite area avoided being settled or exploited like so many other areas on the frontier.

Members Reviews:

Where's the Pictures?

With exception of the cover and one single photo at the introduction showing "Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View" there were no other photos produced making this one of the more disappointing Charles River Editors books I've come across. From a historical aspect of providing quality narrative it did a fine job, but don't advertise passages like "full of natural wonders" and "wonderful depth and grandeur of its sculpture" and then not show an adequate number of photos to demonstrate such.

Three Stars

Enjoyed the historical aspects of the book.

A great place to visit

A good read and some interesting details about this American treasure. Could use some maps to fully appreciate the book's contents

EXCELLENT

A very good ebook about a very good national park.

interesting read.

Interesting read.

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Title: Native American Tribes: The History and Culture of the Cherokee

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: Scott Larson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs

Language: English

Release date: 04-07-15

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 11 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

From the "Trail of Tears" to Wounded Knee and Little Bighorn, the narrative of American history is incomplete without the inclusion of the Native Americans that lived on the continent before European settlers arrived in the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the first contact between natives and settlers, tribes like the Sioux, Cherokee, and Navajo have both fascinated and perplexed outsiders with their history, language, and culture. In Charles River Editors' Native American Tribes series, listeners can get caught up to speed on the history and culture of North America's most famous native tribes in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.

Native American Tribes: The History and Culture of the Cherokee comprehensively covers the culture and history of the famous tribe, profiling their origins, their famous leaders, and their lasting legacy.

Members Reviews:

Narrator a bit abrasive.

What didnt you like about Scott Larsons performance?

The narrator was a bit abrasive and pretty opinionated in his way of speech. I really liked the Comanche book from this series, because I have it on while I work, and the narrator was calm and I could just zone out and listen to the book. In this performance, I feel like rather than have a neutral, informative tone, the reader constantly draws attention to himself with the inflections in his voice. Not what I'm looking for, and I couldn't even get through the first chapter.

Very informative for such a short audiobook.

shorter than most audio books I listen to but you will never look at president Jackson the same.

Well worth the listen

Great to get more knowledge on the lead up to the trail of tears and all of the things that most only have an outsiders view of.

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Title: The Trail of Tears

Subtitle: The Forced Removal of the Five Civilized Tribes

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: Dave Wright

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-17-15

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 25 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

"I fought through the War Between the States and have seen many men shot, but the Cherokee Removal was the cruelest work I ever knew." - Georgia soldier on the Trail of Tears

The "Five Civilized Tribes" are among the best known Native American groups in American history, and they were even celebrated by contemporary Americans for their abilities to adapt to white culture. But tragically, they are also well known tribes due to the trials and tribulations they suffered by being forcibly moved west along the "Trail of Tears".

Though the Trail of Tears applied to several different tribes, it is most commonly associated today with the Cherokee. The Cherokee began the process of assimilation into European America very early, even before the establishment of the Unites States, but it is unclear what benefits that brought the tribe. Throughout the colonial period and after the American Revolution, the Cherokee struggled to satisfy the whims and desires of American government officials and settlers, often suffering injustices after complying with their desires. Nevertheless, the Cherokee continued to endure, and after being pushed west, they rose from humble origins as refugees new to the southeastern United States to build themselves back up into a powerhouse both economically and militarily. The Cherokee ultimately became the first people of non-European descent to become U.S. citizens en masse, and today the Cherokee Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United States, boasting over 300,000 members.

Members Reviews:

Not complete

Wasn't a complete story. Told little about the Choctaw. Focused just on a few tribal histories.

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Title: Damned Nation

Subtitle: Hell in America From the Revolution to Reconstruction

Author: Kathryn Gin Lum

Narrator: Suzanne Toren

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-20-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Among the pressing concerns of Americans in the first century of nationhood were day-to-day survival, political harmony, exploration of the continent, foreign policy, and - fixed deeply in the collective consciousness - hell and eternal damnation. The fear of fire and brimstone and the worm that never dies exerted a profound and lasting influence on Americans' ideas about themselves, their neighbors, and the rest of the world.

Kathryn Gin Lum poses a number of vital questions: Why did the fear of hell survive Enlightenment critiques in America after largely subsiding in Europe and elsewhere? What were the consequences for early and antebellum Americans of living with the fear of seeing themselves and many people they knew eternally damned? How did they live under the weighty obligation to save as many souls as possible? What about those who rejected this sense of obligation and fear?

Gin Lum shows that beneath early Americans' vaunted millennial optimism lurked a pervasive anxiety: that rather than being favored by God, they and their nation might be the object of divine wrath. As time-honored social hierarchies crumbled before revival fire, economic unease, and political chaos, "saved" and "damned" became as crucial distinctions as race, class, and gender. The threat of damnation became an impetus for or deterrent from all kinds of behaviors, from reading novels to owning slaves. Gin Lum tracks the idea of hell from the Revolution to Reconstruction. She considers the ideas of theological leaders like Jonathan Edwards and Charles Finney as well as those of ordinary women and men. She discusses the views of Native Americans, Americans of European and African descent, residents of Northern insane asylums and Southern plantations, New England's clergy and missionaries overseas, and even proponents of Swedenborgianism and annihilationism.

Members Reviews:

Insightful and eye opening

Great viewpoint. story leads in well and makes you think. Will listen again soon. j